STS-113
Report #20
Tuesday, December 3, 2002 – 8 a.m. CST
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
Endeavour's crew will turn its attention to a return trip home today as they prepare for
a possible landing Wednesday at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Weather
permitting, Endeavour is scheduled for a landing at 2:48 p.m. central time Wednesday.
The crew will spend its day stowing away equipment and hardware, and preparing their
vehicle for its high-speed reentry. With a landing tomorrow, the returning Expedition
Five crew - Commander Valery Korzun, NASA ISS Science Officer Peggy Whitson and
Flight Engineer Sergei Treschev -will have spent 182 days in space. Approximately 2,
203 pounds of equipment and experiments from the International Space Station will
also return home aboard Endeavour.
Over the course of an 11-day mission, the STS-113 crew - Commander Jim
Wetherbee, Pilot Paul Lockhart and Mission Specialists Mike Lopez-Alegria and John
Herrington - Whitson, Korzun and Treschev, and the Expedition Six crew of Commander
Ken Bowersox, NASA ISS Science Officer Don Pettit and Flight Engineer Nikolai Budarin,
combined to install the new P1 truss to the station, perform three spacewalks to outfit and activate the truss, and transfer supplies and equipment between the two spacecraft.
Preliminary weather forecasts for tomorrow's landing in Florida indicate the
possibility of clouds and rain showers in the vicinity of the landing site. Flight
controllers will continue to watch weather conditions and receive updated briefings
throughout the day today.
About 2 p.m. today, Endeavour's crew will take time to discuss the successful mission
with CBS "Up to the Minute," TV-E Spain and Tulsa World newspaper.
Aboard the space station, Bowersox, Pettit and Budarin are spending their 10th day in
space unpacking the 2,135 pounds of supplies and equipment brought to the station by
Endeavour.
The next STS-113 mission status report will be issued Tuesday evening or earlier if
events warrant.